Boston Wins Despite Carmelo’s 42; Dwight Evens The Series With ATL

For all the upset goodness that this past weekend’s first round left us with, Tuesday night went exactly as planned with each of the higher seeds claiming Ws. The Magic took care of the Hawks 88-82, Boston closed out New York 96-93 and the Mavs were able pull away from Rip City in the fourth, 101-89. But what Tuesday lacked in underdog victory, it sure as hell made up for in dramatic endings. And in New York’s case, even with Carmelo Anthony going off the reservation for 42 points, 17 rebounds and six assists, and with a new song in their iPod, everything came down to their other late-season acquisition, Jared Jeffries. This is how the final sequence went down … Jeffries first hits the go-ahead basket to give the Knicks a one-point lead with around 20 seconds to go. On the ensuing Boston possession, Jeffries was then manhandled by KG for a little baby-J to put the C’s back up one. Then, on the game’s final possession, Jeffries was given the rock under the basket from a double-teamed ‘Melo, promptly turns around and passes it directly into the Big Ticket’s outreached palms. Yeah, we know … The thing is, if J.J. pivots baseline, he probably has the winning layup in hand. Instead, the Knicks are left reeling down 2-0 in the series as it heads back to Madison Square Garden. Needless to say, the late game dramatics left fans in a social media tizzy after the game. Dime’s Aron Phillips summed it up like this afterwards: “Why is this night different from all other nights? Tonight, Jared Jeffries found the afikoman.” And an extended member of the Dime fam had this to say: “The only way to redeem that loss for me would be if in his press conference Mike D’Antoni said, “Timofey Mozgof ain’t walking through that door” … More importantly, is there anyone that has gotten more camera time this year than Ray Allen‘s mom? She’s definitely been on more than Jack, Spike and Eddy Curry … In Central Floridian news, Dwight Howard has once again proved he is a beast of a human being. While we’re not quite sold on his new found facial hair (Stan Van Gundy still runs the team’s stache game), Howard was on point most of the night. Sure the big fella logged seven turnovers, but his 33-point and 19-board performance netted Orlando the much-needed win (Series now tied 1-1) … Oh, and did you see Jamal Crawford‘s three bomb at the first quarter buzzer? That was some straight T.J. Sorrentine flossing for ya … In the night’s final game, Dallas tried to silence any hope of a Portland upset in the Lone Star State with another pair of beastly performances from Jason Kidd and Dirk Nowitzki. And while we’re on the subject, who the hell projected J-Kidd to have lit up the Blazers for 24 and 18, respectively, in the first two games? And we’re not talking assists. Mad respect … Even a Marcus Camby deep ball (his first three-pointer in two years and as a Blazer) wasn’t enough to overcome the surging Mavs … Lakers forward Lamar Odom also took home some shiny new hardware with the NBA Sixth Man Award on Tuesday. We can only hope there will be a forthcoming commercial as amazing as his last one to celebrate … According to Sports Media World, former Houston front man Rick Adelman had this to say about his Rockets’ departure: “I came here to coach Yao and Tracy and ended up with Luis and Chuck.” Yeah, the Ouch … Speaking of Yao, apparently BMW got a little help from the Houston Rockets center as he made a surprise appearance to launch an electric concept car at the Shanghai auto show. We’re glad to see that after playing five games this season (the last being Nov. 10) that the current free agent has his priorities straight … We’re out like the Sixth Man’s Unbreakable.